Electric vehicles for Fellbach

City council switches to e-mobility following Fraunhofer IAO analysis

Jan 15, 2015

With eight electric vehicles currently in operation, Fellbach City Council’s vehicle fleet is now almost completely electric. In preparation for the switchover, Fraunhofer IAO scientists working as part of the elektromobilisiert.de project simulated various scenarios for systematically electrifying the council’s fleet and provided a cost and environmental analysis.

Is it possible to switch to an all-electric vehicle fleet – and if so, is it worth it? These are questions Fellbach City Council posed at the end of 2012, prompting scientists from Fraunhofer IAO and its cooperation partner, the IAT at the University of Stuttgart, to put the nine-vehicle fleet under the microscope. Is the fleet being used to its full capacity? How far on average do council employees generally have to drive? A field test was launched in parallel to the analysis using electric vehicles supplied by Fraunhofer IAO. This gave Fellbach council a chance to try out the electric vehicles, and Fraunhofer IAO was able to gather data on what routes were driven using software developed in house.

98 percent of routes are under 100 km

What the analysis indicated was that by implementing certain fleet management measures, the council could reduce the size of its fleet by two vehicles and make the switch to electric mobility. This is tied to the finding that in 98 percent of cases, the fleet vehicles are used to make trips of well under 100 km – a range that will prove no problem for electric vehicles. And since the vehicles are generally not in service during the night, there is ample time to charge them in the City Hall parking garage. All this puts Fellbach in an ideal position to make the best use of electromobility.

Fellbach City Council now has seven VW e-up!s in its fleet as well as a larger electric vehicle for use by the sorting office. The first public charge spot for electric vehicles is scheduled to be installed near City Hall in early 2015, with more planned for the future. The switchover also has an economic upside for the City Council: Downsizing the fleet reduces its fixed costs, ensures the remaining vehicles are well utilized and lowers the operating costs, too.

elektromobilisiert.de – custom fleet analysis

Under the banner of elektromobilisiert.de, public authorities, communities and companies are able to have their fleets professionally tested for their electro-compatibility – including the opportunity to undertake a practical trial using Fraunhofer IAO’s test fleet of electric vehicles. Taking into account such factors as range and charging times, software developed at the institute is used to evaluate data contained in the logbooks from existing fleets to determine their potential for conversion to electric power.